


Lava and the Tin Man

by TheProperLexicon



Category: Tin Man (2007)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-27 04:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8387779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheProperLexicon/pseuds/TheProperLexicon
Summary: Cain and DG's two little girls never needed a hero, until they do. And thankfully Cain is there to show them exactly what a Tin Man is for.





	

If he had assumed that age, queendom, or marriage would slow her down, change her playful personality, or make her bored, he had been sadly mistaken. She had blazed across the O.Z. in an attempt to save her sister when he had first met her, and not a single day dawned that she did not resemble that same effervescent young woman. It was enough to wear him out. But he always managed to go to sleep smiling, because he knew that the next day the adventure would start all over again.

But one dawn changed everything. He had been pacing outside the room all night, listening to the voices within; hers alternating between shrill and tired. He could hear it in her tone. She had been in there without him for hours, and he had not be able to sit down once. His wife was in there, and she needed him, and some damned archaic tradition dictated that he wait just outside the door, his heart hammering in his chest. It was no easier the second time around. 

Footsteps echoed down the hall but he did not look up from his pacing. One foot in front of the other, like a march. Like a Tin Man. “Dad?” He lifted his head to see his son, blond hair falling in his face. He smelled of sweat and horse. “I came as soon as word reached me. Anything yet?” He shook his head and the young man fell in beside him as he walked. “She’ll be fine,” he offered. His father waved his hand to silence him. A moment later the older man reached out a hand and clamped it onto his son’s shoulder as a thank you. The young man nodded.

Neither of them had any concept of how long they paced there, together. After a while they focused so intently on the sound of their own boot heels on the tile that when the cry broke through they both startled. When they met each other’s gaze, broad smiles broke and they laughed as they embraced; clapping each other on the back as they did. 

The door opened. In it stood a young nurse, her hair tucked under a white muslin cap. She was wearing a white apron that was slightly smudged with blood, but she was smiling. “You can come in, sir,” her eyes flickered to the younger man. “But just you. For now.”

“Of course,” his son said, stepping aside.

Inside the room she laid in the bed, propped up on a dozen pillows. She had a comforter over her, and her hair was stuck to her flushed face. She was radiant. Those bright blue eyes lifted to him and they lit up even more than they had ever before. “Wyatt,” she whispered, pulling back the blanket that bound the bundle in her arms to reveal the flushed round face of the infant she held. “You have a daughter.” He gently sank onto the bed beside her and accepted the bundle into his arms, already knowing that his days would never be quiet again.

____________________________________________________________________

 _Well, I wasn’t wrong_ , he thought as he sat in his office in the far eastern tower of the palace. He was going over the profiles for the newest recruits to the Tin Man Academy and from somewhere in the area he heard incessant giggles. The eldest, Ailana, had been joined when she was two by Delysia, and the two of them were thick as thieves before Delysia’s first birthday. Three year old Ailana would toddle around the palace with a giggly Delysia crawling along behind her like a pet, and dancing around them was the ever bubbly DG.

From where he sat trying to concentrate he could hear the delighted squeals of the girls and the cooing voice of their mother, who oftentimes forgot she was supposed to be running a kingdom and instead helped the girls to build fortresses of pillows and wage war on poor, unsuspecting servants. Cain smiled to himself as he thought of her, running down the hallways chased by their now four and six year old. He pushed himself up, out of the chair, and propelled himself from this office. He followed the sounds of play down the hall and into a large chamber that had been a library when he had entered his office that morning.

Now it had been turned into a fortress of overturned furniture and stacks of books that held ladders draped in curtains pulled from their moorings. “Halt!” shouted a faux deep voice from behind a tilted couch. He could see the solid wood that made up the base of the sofa, and imagined the little raven haired pixie that hid just beyond it. “Certain death shall certainly meet anyone who enters here!” the small voice continued in its false boom. “Halt, I say!”

“I’m halted,” Cain called, a smile on his lips. “I come in peace!” He raised his hands above his head.

The littlest one, four year old Delysia, popped up from behind an overturned chair. “Daddy!” she chirped, a grin spreading on her face.

“Get down, Dee!” Ailana hissed from where she was stationed behind the couch.

“But Lana! It’s Daddy!”

“That’s just what the pirate wants you to think!” Lana peered over the cushions of the couch. “I don’t trust him.”

Delysia frowned and shrugged at Cain as she slid down, her little brow furrowed in confusion. She waved her little fingers as she slipped out of sight. Just when Cain was beginning to wonder where his wife was he heard the _smack smack smack_ of bare feet on the tile behind him and she barreled around the corner like a rocket. She darted around him with a fleeting smile over her shoulder as she launched herself over one of the ladders and skid to a stop before ducking below his line of sight. “Status report!” she shouted.

“Pirate in the area, Captain!” Ailana crowed from her vantage point behind the sofa. “I gave him the warning, but the scallywag won’t leave!”

DG was breathless from her run when she spoke again. “Well, then, you know what to do, ladies!” There was a long pause in which Cain felt his heart begin to hammer. Silence with these three was never golden, it was always suspicious. “Attack!” DG shouted, and a hail of pillows flew out from three different areas, pummeling him as he lifted his arms up to shield himself.

“All right! All right!” he laughed, ducking and picking up a few to throw back at them. One smacked into a table on the far side of the room, sending a pile of books to the ground and the other fell harmlessly on the outside of the fortress. “I get it, I get it!” He backed up. “I’ll let you girls play by yourselves!” He laughed on his way back to his office, their gleeful shouts following him the whole time.

____________________________________________________________________

This was a common occurrence in the palace. The young princesses would set up scenarios where they would have to defend themselves, and whenever Cain stumbled across them, they would launch projectiles at him and laugh as he fled. He took it with a grain of salt, the two little ones were so much like DG. They wanted to be the heroes, they wanted to do their own saving. So he let them chase him off with their plush cannon fodder.

When she was not playing with the girls, DG did not shirk her responsibilities as queen. She attended every meeting of state, every ball and gala. But Cain knew that every moment she was away from them her heart was lessened; he saw it in her eyes. That was why, when she would spend her time readying them for bed before a gala, he let her do it alone.  


____________________________________________________________________

It was on one such night that he stood just outside the open nursery door, listening. DG had stepped in, dressed in her midnight blue, full skirted gown, encrusted in diamonds that sparkled, and the girls had erupted into _oohs_ and _aahs_. They loved their mother all dressed up like a queen, almost as much as they loved to be dressed up as princesses. She greeted them and tickled and laughed with them as she helped them change into their nightclothes, even as Cain listened to their little voices asking all manner of childlike questions. His heart warmed and he wanted to hold them, but he would never break into the bubble that the girls and their mother had created. 

Typically on these nights, when he was not too busy to wait outside the room for DG to finish, he heard such ridiculously innocent questions, asking about the dresses the other ladies would be wearing, or what sort of roast would be had. They would ask if her hairstyle hurt, or how she walked in the heels. And she would laugh and answer them with her hands in their hair or fluffing their nightgowns. But tonight, something was different with the girls.

It was Delysia’s sweet little voice that started it, none of his girls knowing that Cain waited outside this particular evening. “Will Papa be there?” she asked.

“Of course he will,” DG replied gently, braiding Delysia’s hair into pigtails. “He’s my knight in shining armor. He’s always with me.” Cain bent his head to hide the smile. “What’s wrong, my little light?”

“Well,” it was Ailana’s voice this time. “You say he’s always with you, but he never wants to play with us.” Cain’s heart thumped in his chest and his eyes darted up to stare at the wall that separated him from the sweet voice of his daughter. “Does Papa not like us?”

He could not see her, but he knew his wife. She scooped up Ailana and snuggled her close. “Oh no, my light. Papa loves you very, very much. But you see, your games paint him as the villain, the dastardly pirate, the sieging vagabond. Your Papa is a hero, through and through.” Cain felt uncharacteristic tears burning, but something in her voice kept him paralyzed on the outside of the nursery, listening as his girls did. “He saved me, my little ones. He saved my life, not once, not twice, but dozens of times. So when you make him the villain, he doesn’t know how to play along. He retreats, as all the bad men that he has faced do.”

“So, Papa is a hero?” Delysia whispered, awe-filled. DG nodded, pressing a kiss against her forehead. “Maybe one day he can teach me how.”

“I think he would like that,” DG answered. “But for now, I think he would like you to go to bed so that I can save him from the dreary old ministers downstairs.” Blinking his emotions carefully away, Cain let himself out of the room, heading back out into the hallway so that she would not know he had heard.  


____________________________________________________________________

Downstairs he waited outside the door that would grant them access to the gala. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, waiting. When she slid up beside him and slipped her hand through his arm, he felt the smile begin. DG pushed herself up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Hello, Tin Man,” she greeted.

“Princess,” he replied, a smile dawning. “How were the littles tonight?”

“They wanted to talk about you,” she answered in his ear, and his heart thrummed a bit. “They wanted to hear about how you are a hero.”

“Well, they certainly love to be heroes,” Cain quipped as the doormen approached to reveal the great ballroom. A hint of sadness slipped into his voice as he added, “They don’t need a rusty old Tin Man.” DG was staring at him when the doors swung open, bathing them in light. He did not look down at her, but he knew that she wore her most pained expression before sliding into her diplomatic image. The rest of the evening, every time he felt her eyes on him, he knew the look he would find when he returned the glance.

Hours later, when he stepped from the bathroom and into their chambers, he knew that he had to explain. She was sitting up in bed, her hair a fuzzy halo around her round face, her hands clasped firmly in her lap. She was waiting for him. He sank onto the mattress and tugged the blankets up to his waist. Immediately, she turned to him, bright blue eyes piercing.

“What’s going on, Wyatt?” She asked, using his first name. He grimaced. Nothing good ever came from her using his first name. “What was that you said about the girls just before you threw me into a sea of diplomats and left me to wonder for hours?”

He fought not to roll his eyes are her dramatics. “It’s not all that, DG,” he answered, turning to switch off the light by his side of the bed. “Get some sleep.” He sank down to settle into his pillows, but she leaned across him, her nightgown brushing his forehead, and switched the light back on. He groaned.

“Not until you tell me what got you all mopey at the gala.” She was leaned over him, her hair falling in his face. He reached up and coiled a frizzy ringlet around one of his fingers and was relieved when she let him. She was not actually mad at him, then, and that made all the difference.

“I wasn’t mopey,” he defended. “I was the same way I always am.”

“Then what was up with what you said right before we went in? About the girls not needing a rusty old Tin Man?”

He flinched as his own words slipped from her lips. He had not really used the phrase to describe himself since before they were married, at least not out loud. But it echoed through his mind often enough for it to become a running commentary. When it ached to ride horseback to the next county over for meetings, when he rose to his feet after a few hours at his desk and his knees popped loud enough for him to hear it, when he looked in the mirror and saw that the gray was slowly overcoming the blond. “It’s nothing, DG. I swear. Just a moment of self-deprecation. Honestly. Now, please. We both have long days tomorrow, and I’d rather not have to sit through another agricultural briefing with only a few hours of sleep.”

DG cringed as she sank back down, removing her face from his direct line of sight. He turned to follow her with his gaze as he saw her remember the last meeting they had to sit through for the farmers’ board. Delysia had been up all night with a terrible fever and they had taken turns holding her and waiting for the fever to break. But even while one was in with her, the other did not sleep well. He could see her battling her own thoughts. The fighter in her wanted to know what had upset him, but the logical side of her knew that he was not going to tell her, and that they both needed sleep. “You promise there isn’t something wrong that you need to talk about?”

He reached up and dragged his pointer finger across his heart in an “x” motion, the way that she often did it. “Cross my heart and hope to die,” he intoned in the closest thing to a singsong voice he would ever get to. She snorted, her little nose wrinkling up adorably, and scooted down to his level.

“You’re a terrible liar, Cain,” she countered, leaning over to switch off her light. He turned onto his shoulder to turn off his again and smiled to himself. He was back to his last name, so maybe she wasn’t so mad after all. As soon as he sank back into the mattress in the darkness, she curled up and laid her head on his shoulder. His arm wrapped around her and tugged her close, his face turning to bury itself in her hair. His girls might not need a rusty old Tin Man, but at least DG still needed him.

____________________________________________________________________

His desk was piled high with papers and scrolls, and he had his head in his hands. The meeting with the agricultural board had seemed to go on forever, and even Azkadelia, who had been the picture of diplomacy since she had been crowned by the O.Z. officially, had started to nod off. DG had sat behind him, pinching herself to stay awake. He had worried at the time that she would have a bruise, but now he was so tired that he wished he had his own bruise to poke to wake himself up.

His eyes had closed for the briefest of moments, and immediately his other senses became hyperaware. His hearing seemed to switch to supersonic, and he doubted very much that if he had been focused intently on his work that he would have heard it at all.

It was the small, tender voice of his eldest daughter. Ailana was shouting in that high-pitch of hers, over and over. _Oh no,_ she called. _Wherever could my captain of the guards’ be? He’s never left me like this before!_ Cain’s brow furrowed and he wondered where DG had gotten to. As the make-believe Captain of the girl’s guard, they expected her to come speeding around the corner to lead them off on a charge. He pushed his head from his hands and frowned. Maybe she had fallen asleep somewhere and the girls were trying to rouse her with their game. He rose to see what they were up to.

Cain moved down the hall, checking rooms for DG, all the while he could hear the girls yelling to each other. As he grew closer to the library, he heard little Delysia’s voice join Ailana’s and his smile grew wider. They were both calling for their captain of the guard, yelling for help.

He reached the library with no sight of DG, and turned the corner. The girls were perched on separate cushions, both yards apart, and between them were several more cushions, each too far for their little legs to stretch. He paused in the door as both girls turned to look at him, their faces brightening.

“Oh!” Ailana cheered, her arms above her head. “You’re here!” Cain’s eyebrow arched even as he braced himself for a plush cannon onslaught. Instead his raven haired little girl beamed at him. “Thank goodness you made it! The lava is getting higher!” She gestured wildly at the marble floor around her pillow.

“The _lava_ , Daddy!” Delysia chimed in, pointing at his feet. “It’s almost got you!” Cain looked down at his feet and saw a pillow there at the entrance. “Quick! Get on the rock!” He stood there, stock still for a long moment, until Ailana stomped her little foot.

“Daddy!” she scolded. “How can you rescue us from the lava if you’re killed by it? Get on the rock!”

Cain immediately jumped onto to the pillow/rock and blinked in surprise. “Of course, princess,” he replied with a bow, much as he did to DG when she asked something of him. Ailana beamed.

“Daddy!” Delysia called again, playfully stumbling back. “Daddy! The lava is getting too high! Help me!” Cain hid his grin as he took in the distance between the pillows on the floor. It was too far of a distance for their little legs to jump, but it was perfectly spaced for him. He leapt onto a pillow between them and balanced himself comically, as though he were walking on a highwire. Ailana and Delysia giggled. He turned and leapt again, coming closer to her.

“Daddy!” Ailana called, pointing to her feet. “The lava! Hurry!” Cain took a final leap and landed squarely beside Delysia on her large couch cushion.

“Ok, princess,” he said, reaching down and scooping her up. “Let’s get to you safety.”

“No, daddy! It will be too late for Lana! Leave me! Get her!”

Cain fought the urge to laugh at the dramatics of it all. “Who do you think you’re talking to? I once saved your mother from an entire army of vicious Papay!” He leapt her over to another pillow, and another, before depositing her safely outside the door and in the hallway. From there, cheered on by the tiny voice and exuberant hops of his youngest, he catapulted himself over to one pillow, and then another, to rescue Ailana from her own oversized cushion.

With her in his arms, he stepped back out into the hallway. “Daddy!” Ailana cheered as he bent down and scooped up Delysia, “You _saved_ us!”

“Well of course I did,” he answered, giving them each kisses on the cheek. “What do you think Tin Men are for?”

The girls cheered as she set them down and turned away. There, a few yards down the hallway, stood DG. She wore his favorite purple gown, her hair loose and wavy around her circular face. Her arms were folded over her chest, and she wore a smile. “What’s going on here?” she asked, her voice light.

“Daddy saved us from the lava!” Ailana answered brightly. “He’s a hero!”

“A hero!” Delysia chirped.

DG crossed the tile toward them, dropping her arms to her sides. “Well, that doesn’t surprise me at all.” She reached up on her tiptoes and brushed a kiss against his cheek. “My Tin Man.”

“Did you put them up to this?” he whispered into her hair.

She pulled away, blue eyes wide and surprised. “No, not at all. I’ve been in meetings all day.” She looked down at her feet, where the two little girls were latched soundly onto their father’s legs. “This was all them.”

“All us,” Delysia echoed, a smile on her sweet little face, though he doubted she understood.

“You’re a hero, Daddy,” Ailana whispered. “And if you can’t play a villain, then we won’t be the heroes.”

He broke away from DG and kneeled down to brush a wild curl from her pink cheek before pressing a kiss to her forehead. “How about all three of us get to be heroes,” he answered against her skin. “I bet I can get into some trouble tomorrow that will need the ingenuity of a couple of brilliant princesses to help me escape.”

Both girls’ eyes lit up and they began to bounce on their toes. “Really, Daddy?” Ailana begged, clasping her hands together.

“You got it. Now,” he bent and kissed each of their heads. “Go play.” The girls kissed his cheeks, clasped hands and dashed off, shouting farewells to their mother as they went. When they were gone, Cain pushed himself back to his feet and groaned as his knees popped. DG smirked, but said nothing as she slipped her hand into his. “Now, what sort of trouble can I get into that the girls can rescue me from?”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something, Cain,” DG answered as they began to stroll back toward his office. “After all, you did save me from an entire army of vicious Papay.”

There was teasing in her voice and he blushed faintly. He remembered full well who it was that saved them from the small group of Papay runners back when he had first met her. “Ahem,” he said, clearing his throat. “Yes, well. I have quite a bit of work to do.”

DG lifted herself up on her toes again and pressed her lips to his. “I’m sure you do. I’m going to go see where those wayward girls have dashed off to. I’ll see you at dinner.” He held her tight for a moment before letting her go. “Tin Man,” she added, her voice soft and sultry. And as she walked down the hallway her voice and those words overshadowed his own inner monologue, at least for now. He smiled as he sank into his chair and gazed over the papers before him. Maybe he was not so rusted after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! It's been such a long time since I posted up a fanfic, but I've been working on my "real" novels. The one I'm working is so dark that I needed a little Tin Man fluff, that's what brings this to you today! Hope you enjoy and I'd LOVE, LOVE feedback!
> 
> Thanks!


End file.
